Daniel Ricciardo has come under fire on social media for remarks he made which some considered insensitive. The McLaren driver called the news ‘drama’ when talking about human rights violations in countries that host F1.
Daniel Ricciardo managed to get himself into a pickle with netizens when speaking to the press took a turn for the worse. The Aussie driver was asked what he felt about F1 racing in Saudi Arabia despite all of the controversy around it regarding their shady human rights record.
In a faux pas, the McLaren driver bumbled onto a line of answering which opened him up to criticism by all those who heard what he had to say.
When asked about the importance of drivers using their platform to talk about issues, Ricciardo had this to say.
“I don’t watch the news and feel better about my day. I choose not to watch it because a lot of the time it is… people – they like drama and negativity. “
The internet did not react to the choice of words used by the Australian driver.
While some people accused Ricciardo of being ‘sheltered’ and ‘callous’, others defended the driver and explained that he referred to the news as ‘drama’ and negative and not the human rights violations themselves.
The driver then went on to talk about how it really isn’t like him to understand much about socio-political issues.
“It’s not in my nature to really understand a lot about this.”
The internet is an unforgiving place
Ricciardo mentioned that he understood that a statement like this may make him come off as ignorant but that self-awareness was not enough to save him from the wrath of the internet.
Some netizens latched onto the Aussie driver and accused him of not caring about important issues. Needless to say that once again, the internet is divided over what to make of this.
Daniel Ricciardo is one of the most well-liked figures in F1 and a backlash against him such as this is quite unprecedented.
Many are accusing the entire F1 machinery of being performative with the exception of Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton who have openly spoken about such issues repeatedly.
Netizens are also demanding that more drivers apart from the two mentioned before should be asked questions such as these so they can be ‘exposed’.
Drivers get flak for speaking on important issues. Others get flak for not speaking about them. The current climate can be summarised like this.
Damned if you do. Damned if you don’t.
Also read: Sister of man imprisoned in Saudi Arabia asks Lewis Hamilton for help
